Living in the Dustbowl

Webquest

Introduction

Task

Process

Evaluation

Conclusion

Introduction

The Dust Bowl was a ecological and human disaster that took place in the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States in the 1930's, including parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.  "Dust Bowl" was a term born in the hard times from the people who lived in the drought-stricken region during the great depression.  The "Dust Bowl Days" also known as the "Dirty Thirties" took their toll on the people of this region of the country with the many extremes of weather:  blizzards, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and dirt storms.

The Task

You will read a fictional account of life in the Dust Bowl and do historical research on the web about that time period.  You will then write a short essay on these readings. Also, you will compose a short poem using the impressions that have stuck in your mind about that time in history. 

The Process

1.    You must read the book by Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust.  

2.    Your teacher will assign each student the role of either Billie, her mother, or her father.  You are to assume the roll and          perspective of that family member living in the Dust Bowl. 

3.    Then visit at least three of the following sites which have factual information about the Dust Bowl.

Voices from the Dust Bowl

Surviving the Dust Bowl

1930's Dust Bowl

History of the Dustbowl

The Dust Bowl

4.    Gather information from these sources that will be used in a short essay that you will write in class

Paragraph 1 should include information about the type of work that each family member does.  Discuss why each role is necessary for the survival of this family.  From what you have read, was this common for most people who lived in the dust bowl?  How different would this have been for someone living in another part of the country during this time?

Paragraph 2 should include information about the daily life of your family member.   Outline what a typical day would have been for your person.  How would the family have been affected if the daily life was different.  From your research, would this have been common for others in this area, and for people in other parts of the country at this time?

Paragraph 3 should include information about leisure activities that your family member was involved in.  What types of leisure activities was your family member engaged in?   How much time would you estimate was available for leisure?  How much money would have been available to spend on leisure activities?  From your reading, what leisure activities would have been available to people of the dust bowl.  How were people able to escape their problems and find some enjoyable activities?

5.    Write a short poem based on one of the three paragraphs in your essay.  Look at the way author Karen Hesse has written her book Out of the Dust.   Use this as a model for your poem.  Try to write a poem that could fit into her book.  Be sure to have at least twelve lines in your poem.

Evaluation

You will receive a grade on the short essay and a grade on the poem that you create.   Each grade will consist of three parts: originality, knowledge of subject, adherence to directions, and neatness.

Conclusion

There certainly is a lot to learn about the Dust Bowl of the 1930's.  In this assignment you learned about the way that people lived during that time and how, even though times were extremely hard, the human spirit was able to rise above the bad times.   Although the factual information is important, the most important part of this assignment is to develop a "feeling" for what it was like to live during the Dust Bowl.

 Last updated March 2005 by Trisha Armstrong